Lie Until You Laugh

36- Favors

“I’m doing wonderful,” She grins at me, pulling me into a soft hug before letting me go and sitting back down.

Penn’s dad, who is much taller and scarier-looking than myself or Mrs. Shaw, shakes my hand and smiles politely at me. From what I remember though, Mrs. Shaw is the one that’s scarier on the inside, so I shouldn’t let his looks deceive me. “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Shaw,” I greet him, proud of myself for being so put-together.

“The same for you, Sienna,” He smiles. The table that we’re sitting at is round and small but it only has to fit three people, so being small isn’t really an issue at all. There are three waters already on the table for us but Mrs. Shaw orders a glass of wine when the waitress comes by for a drink order. Mr. Shaw gets a different type of wine but I stick with just my water. I won’t get a fancy glass, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money while I’m here and I assume that the prices for food are pretty heart breaking so I’ll have to save my money for that.

“So, what can we do for you, dear?” Mrs. Shaw asks me once the waitress returns with their wine and scampers off again. “I believe you were the one who scheduled this meal.”

I nod in confirmation, remembering the phone call I made on Saturday night when this spontaneous idea came to me. I stole Penn’s father’s number from Penn’s phone when he was in the bathroom (I only went through his phone to get the number, I didn’t snoop through anything else though) so I called him when I got back to my room that night and he agreed to have brunch with me today. “My apologies for sounding nosy and I don’t want to impose on family matters, but I wanted to talk about Ana.”

“Oh?” She says, seemingly interested but not offended in what I said. That’s good, I suppose, that she’s not mad yet because I was almost expecting her to scream at me that it’s none of my business. “What about Ana do you need to discuss?”

“Um, well I was wondering if there’s any way that she can return home any sooner than she’s scheduled to come home?” I say softly, getting more nervous by the second. I was braver before I actually opened my mouth about Ana and now I’m kind of freaking out again. “I know that she’s at a boarding school in Alaska, but it would really mean a lot to Penn if she came home early.”

“You’re here on behalf of Penn then?” Mr. Shaw asks me with raised eyebrows as he sips slowly from his wine glass.

I shake my head. “Well, he doesn’t know that I’m here. I sort of want to surprise him.”

“Ana is in Alaska for a reason, sweetie,” Mrs. Shaw tells me with an apologetic frown. “She needs to feel the consequences of what she did.”

“But what she did was get attacked,” I remind the lady, trying not to seem irritated, although I really am but this conversation is just getting started and I need it to go well if they’re ever going to agree to this. “It wasn’t her fault. What she went through was terrible and she was at the wrong place at the wrong time, but it wasn’t her fault.”

“There were a lot of factors that went into why she got attacked,” Mrs. Shaw politely argued. She doesn’t seem upset, which is still a miracle to me, she’s just stating what she thinks are facts. “The way she was dressed, where she was walking and at what time of night. She should have been more cautious and she shouldn’t have sneaked out of the house that night. What happened to my poor Ana is absolutely terrible, I agree, but she’s not completely innocent in this ordeal.”

I don’t know why I thought this was ever going to work. This lady is a vapid bitch with no empathy skills what so ever, but I still have to at least try. For Penn and for Ana, even though I’ve never even met her, I feel so incredibly bad for her. I mean, after she went through what she went through, she also had to deal with her mother who was telling her that it was her fault. “I have studies and research that say that it is never the victim’s fault.”